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Picture this: in March 2020, every hotel across Malta and Gozo closed its doors. Practically overnight, the pandemic shattered the hospitality industry. The tourism sector, the very cornerstone of Malta’s economy, all but vanished amid an airport closure and lockdown-like restrictions across the island. At AX Hotels, we too felt the brick-wall effects of the pandemic. Even so, throughout this challenging time, we remained positive and believed that the international vaccination roll-out would enable us to return to business normality before long. Today, and in hindsight, our persistence and optimism of months ago has fallen flat. Of course, on the face of it we appear to be living the situation we had envisaged with such hope. Malta has a vaccination programme that is one of the best in Europe – if not the world – and the airport is welcoming tourists once again. Yet, ironically, despite visitors and clients finally returning in droves, we must now refuse booking ....
Having blazed a trail in the local gastropub scene, Malta’s own award-winning Cheeky Monkey franchise is branching out with a brand new creperie on Merchants Street, Valletta ....
The 11th edition of the Times of Malta Treasure Hunt was held last weekend, May 15-16, attracting eager participants to what has become a staple in the TimesEvents calendar. Team Sabrina Zerafa outside the Times of Malta building. Such events have taken on an added significance during the pandemic as they are seen as a welcome release, held with all safety protocols in place – in fact, the Hunt #11 was sold out 48 hours prior to the start. To ensure that all health protocols were adhered to, the organisers changed the format from the usual Saturday afternoon hunt and after-party. The new format saw clue sheets being e-mailed to participants late on Friday evening, with participants mailing back their answer sheets by 7pm on the following Sunday. ....
As Malta’s tourism industry counts the days to its planned reopening in June, operators are reporting a hesitant wait-and-see approach towards booking from prospective visitors. “The interest to travel is high, but people have taken the wait-and-see approach, waiting for when it is truly safe to travel,” said Iain Tonna, president of the Federated Association of Travel and Tourism Agents. Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo said the first tourists to come to Malta will be from Europe, particularly from the UK, the island’s largest tourism market. Currently, the UK is still on the ‘red list’, which means travel from there is banned except for Maltese nationals and residents. ....
Covid-19 has hit businesses of just about every shape and size hard, but few have felt the effects quite as strongly as those in the hospitality industry. Bars, restaurants and hotels in many parts of the world have been forced to close as restrictions to limit the spread of the Coronavirus have taken hold. ....